Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The art of change in your home should be a common event. Change keeps you from being bored with your surroundings. It can be subtle or bold, and that’s what a stylist does.

We change things and freshen them up bringing a new perspective and a fresh eye.

For the photo shoot, this truly beautiful kitchen required small but important changes like: recreating the displays on the open shelves with various shapes to create composition. Using light colors and sparkling glass to add zing! A large dramatic display of lilacs in an aqua vase. romanced the shot. I think large bouquets of lilacs belong in the kitchen where you spend so much of your time. The little bunch of clematis created a sweet balance and the careful addition of yellow lemons created a small sweet still life.

Monday, April 23, 2012

This
porch setting was screaming for styling help for a photo shot for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

The Before

To make a perfect picture, I had to
scramble for chairs that would add some interest and punch. Adding color was key. I found these red vintage chairs at B&G galleries, a mid-century modern gallery in Hingham, Massachusetts.

photo by John Bessler

Bringing in a huge urn with grasses broke up the space to
create interest and
definition. Notice the careful placement and repetition of select color.
Tiny vases of yellow flowers make a statement without getting in the
way of food serving.

Add people, and Voila! You have a great lifestyle moment!

Photo by John Bessler
Styling by Karin Lidbeck-BrentBetter Homes and Gardens June 2011.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Mantels are not unlike bookshelves. Both are favorite areas of mine in styling shots for magazines. The mantel offers a place in our homes to display favorite possessions. With a minimal amount of effort, you too can add your own eclectic style.

The mantel is a place to show off a bit of your personality. A centerpiece of your living room if you will.

Featured in a past Better Homes and Gardens magazine, I demonstrate different design ideas to use when arranging your mantel in that issue.Here are some hints for you.

The idea of using your mantel as a bookshelf is a favorite styling technique of mine.

Stack books like building blocks while adding artful objects that you love.

Choose an accent color from your room, and go from there, choosing objects in that color family to create a vignette.

This design is asymmetrical. Remember to create balance in weight and balance when styling your mantel.

Adding a vase with flowers on my mantel adds a different dimension and depth. One thing I like to do especially during the spring and summer.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

As a photo stylist for major magazines its all about the accessorizing to get the look a magazine editor or art director wants.

For this Better Homes and Gardens assignment to be magazine noteworthy I created a fresh bold vibe by adding hits of color with art, pillows and other small furnishings

Before and After

View the impact of added vibrant color

Photo by John Bessler

You can produce this same effect as well:

Freshen up a space by adding grouping of bright colored pillows. The nuetral pallette of the room, mostly whites with light blue couch, is a perfect pallette for an EASY makeover. Adding brights gives the space a cool uplift. Pillows adds punch as does the surprising colorful art.

We took out the brown sisel rug adding the neutral grey rug.

See how pulling the rug under the sofa pulls the seating area together.

Photo by John Bessler

One more tip:
Keeping fresh flowers in any room adds immediate invaluable impact.

Always look for what is blooming in season.

Bright pink azaleas were the perfect cutting for this spring shoot for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Multiples make an impact too, instead of just 1 or 2 votives add a larger cluster!

Monday, April 16, 2012

I decided to repost this favorite project I created for Country Gardens. It's an idea that never grows old.. SO EASY to do!

I often say, "the arrangement is equally about the container!"

Asparagus is the vegetable of the season right now and it looks beautiful combined with flowers from your spring garden.

Wrap
a runner band around a coffee size can. Cut asparagus stalk to 1" to
2" taller than the can. Place the stalks side by side standing straight
up inside the rubber band. Tie with a ribbon to hide the rubber band.
Add flowers.

Voilà ... that was easy,... healthy fresh asparagus will last a week or longer (or when the flowers pass then you can cook the asparagus up)

Thursday, April 12, 2012

While daffodils are blooming, you might consider making this.
I came up with this simple arrangement for a Good Housekeeping Spring Issue. With just a few materials in hand you can be put this together quickly.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

I found these boots at the flea market and I knew immediately how I would use them. Doesn't the explosion of pink cherry branches make a perfect fit in these old boots. Fill boot bottoms with stones and then water, Voila!

Created by Karin Lidbeck Brent for Good Housekeeping magazine. Photo by Gemma Coma

Monday, April 9, 2012

Flowering branches are abundant right now and cutting a few branches is a heavenly addition to your home. Hunting for unusual containers is a passion for me. This salvaged colander became a vessel for arranging forsythia in a spring feature I produced for Good Housekeeping.

Turning this vintage colander upside down it became a perfect frog for holding the thin forsythia branches ( hide water bowl inside).

Enjoy the glorious branches by cutting them as they bloom or get longer enjoyment by cutting early and forcing the blooms inside.
photography by Gemma Coma, Styling Karin Lidbeck Brent

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

This giant daisy egg was a design idea I created as a table centerpiece for Good Housekeeping magazine. A fresh idea and so easy to make. It will last longer than you think, many years actually, since the daisies are artificial flowers from the crafts store!

Carve an 8 or 9" high egg shape from a floral foam block or purchase a large styrofoam egg.

You will need approximately 50 artificial daisy heads ( many stems have multiple heads)

Cut
the head with wire cutters approximately 1/2" below the flower head.

Push the stem into the styrofoam.

Repeat with each flower placing them
closely together so the styrofoam is completely covered until the entire egg
is covered in daisies.

Place the egg in a small white bowl as a base to hold your daisy egg upright.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

For the past 15 years working as a contributing crafts editor to Good Housekeeping magazine, I have created dozens of DIY Easter projects. The quest to find new ways to decorate eggs is always a fun challenge!

With Easter around just around the corner, I'd love to share three of my favorite egg projects.

Simple dyed eggs: The fun is in the embellishments.

To create the eggs above:
Shop for pretty trims, and ribbons at your local fabric and craft store. Some trims can be cut apart to make individual flower heads. Choose trims that are narrow and in scale with the eggs.

Dye a batch of hard-boiled eggs in your favorite color palette.

Once the egg shells are thoroughly dry, glue pretty trims onto your eggs. One simple trim around the center of the egg is a simple and pretty embellishment.

Découpage Eggs

Working as a contributing crafts' editor for Woman's Day magazine in the 1980's, I learned this trick: Découpage eggs with cocktail napkins!

Cut the paper into small strips to cover the egg. Using white glue - slightly watered down, brush the glue over a section of the egg, place the paper over the glued area. Brush more glue over the paper smoothing out wrinkles and adhering well. Add more glue and more paper to cover the egg. Do one side at a time, allowing to dry in between.
.

Paper Embellishments

Hardboil your eggs, Leave some eggs natural brown and white. Dye some eggs in pale shades of pink and blue. Use of brown paper and twine inspired this Easter egg project. A simple how-to!

The brown and white dots are made with a paper punch. The flower petals and bunny figure are cut from brown paper using small nail scissors. Apply paper shapes with a glue stick.

Add eggs wrapped with thin twine.

Speckled Eggs

Ahh, then there is the speckled decorated egg! The look almost as true as eggs found in a bird's nest.

Easy DIY Easter egg decoration!

Dye the eggs using soft pastel colors - Just a few minutes in the bath. Allow to dry.

Be sure to cover yourself and working surface.

Using a watered down sepai brown acrylic paint, take an old toothbrush and run your finger along the brush to splatter the paint.

Place in a terra cotta dish with a ring of wheat grass around the edge of dish.

Monday, April 2, 2012

The Good Housekeeping April 2012 issue is on the newsstands now with my inspirations designed for your upcoming Easter Holiday celebration.

Designing this year's Easter feature started a year ago with multiple design ideas, sketches and crafting. After weeks of prepping, propping and presentations with the GH editorial staff, the strongest ideas were pulled together.

Creating the final projects and preparing the many details for the photo shoot is all consuming. For me, the real reward comes in the final stages where the photography and styling bring the projects to life.

Photography by Michael Partenio

Three-tiered Easter Basket Centerpiece

Adorn your Easter basket with coffee filters flowers

Easy paper cutouts using white and brown paper and a glue stick

Full details on how to make these easy DIY Easter projects are featured in

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I'm Karin and I am a stylist, life style editor, designer, artist, and producer. I create DIY projects and style houses for dozens of magazines, catalogs and websites where you may go to get your design inspiration. I love to create beautiful rooms, vignettes, floral arrangements while creating entertaining ideas. This year I started producing crafts and lifestyle ideas for the CT FOX NEWS Morning Show. This blog is my opportunity to share with you all of the projects I create for Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens, New England Homes Magazine, Traditional Homes and many more. I will also share my exciting and hectic life as a stylist, my favorite styling ideas, the way I work, the places I go and the exciting homes and people I meet. Enjoy and be inspired!